1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image reading apparatus configured to read an image of a document, and to an image forming apparatus provided with the image reading apparatus and configured to form an image read by the image reading apparatus on a sheet.
2. Description of the Related Art
Hitherto, there has been provided an image forming apparatus having an apparatus main body including an image reading apparatus configured to read an image of a document, and being configured to form the image read by the image reading apparatus on a sheet (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2011-75859). The image reading apparatus includes an image reading unit configured to read the image of the document placed on a document placing portion, and a document pressure unit configured to press the document placed on the document placing portion against the document placing portion. Examples of the document pressure unit include an auto document feeder configured to automatically feed documents to the image reading unit, and a flat-plate-shaped opening and closing cover.
Incidentally, the document pressure unit is coupled to the image reading unit by hinges (opening and closing hinges) so as to pivot to open and close the document placing portion of the image reading unit. In this case, in order to make the image reading unit reliably support the document pressure unit, at least one pair of the hinges is provided on the image reading unit.
However, the plurality of hinges used in the related-art image reading apparatus pose a problem of structural complexity.